Reincarnation
by MelInuLover
Summary: There's a fire at the Higurashi household, and Kagome is injured. While she's incapacitated, she becomes good friends with a fellow who turns out to be someone she didn't expect...
1. Fire

A/N: One thing you need to know before you start reading: this story takes place soon after the end of the TV show (I have read the manga but I wasn't satisfied with the ending, so I'm using the end of the anime as a benchmark instead). Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

* * *

"Inuyasha?"

The hanyou looked down from the branch he had been perched comfortably on for the past hour or so, upset at being disturbed. A girl stood at the base of the tree, staring up at him, with her enormous yellow backpack slung over her shoulder. He could already tell what she was going to ask - they were, after all, near the only place that could allow her to return home - and he really didn't feel like arguing. He turned his gaze instead to the sun that was setting behind mountains in the distance.

"What?" he asked Kagome with little enthusiasm.

The girl sighed, sensing that an argument was coming. "Can I please go home for a few days?"

Inuyasha turned back to face her and considered her for a moment, then shrugged. "Whatever. Just hurry up."

Kagome opened her mouth, prepared to yell, but then it snapped shut almost painfully with her surprise. After a few seconds to compose herself, a huge smile stretched across her face. "Thank you, Inuyasha," she said sincerely before quickly turning to leave. She wasn't about to wait and see if he would change his mind.

_That was weird,_ Kagome thought as she walked towards the Bone Eater's Well. _Usually he would at least argue with me or something. Maybe he's finally decided to lighten up a bit._

Whatever it was that had changed about Inuyasha, Kagome wasn't going to complain. She knew that they had grown closer over the past year of traveling and fighting together, so it was about time that he began to act nicer towards her.

A few days ago, the group had finally ended their pursuit of Naraku. Inuyasha and Kagome hadn't actually been the ones to kill him, though - Sesshomaru had done the honors. The hanyou and miko had been busy tracking down and destroying Hakudoshi, Naraku's heart.

For a few months after trapping Inuyasha and his friends in the belly of the stone demon, Naraku had hid himself - along with his heart. He had put up a strong barrier, but, as usual, he slipped up for a minute. Unfortunately for him, Kikyo had sensed his presence in the moment of weakness and had alerted Sesshomaru and Inuyasha.

The reality of Naraku's death still hadn't fully sunk in with Kagome. She had imagined that it would feel amazing - like a weight being lifted off her shoulders - but she still felt the same as she had before. Perhaps that was because they still didn't have all of the jewel shards.

Naraku had tricked them once again, even after his death. He knew that Inuyasha and everyone was coming for him, so he had given his chunk of the jewel to Kanna and told her to run away with it. She hid herself, as ordered, and now no one knew where she was.

Needless to say, Inuyasha was frustrated, but Kagome had noticed that he didn't have that same urgency that he always seemed to have before Naraku had died.

_He must really be happy that Naraku's gone, _Kagome thought as she climbed onto the edge of the ancient well connecting her to her own world. She hesitated there for a moment, thinking about how much her priorities had changed since she the first time she had jumped into the well from the Feudal Era.

Her very first time she had been scared and never want to return, but now...she almost felt like the Feudal Era was her second home. Sango, Shippo, Miroku...Inuyasha...she had so many people she loved in the past - if she had to choose one world to stay in permanently, she wasn't entirely sure which one she would pick. And who knows when the day would come that she _would_ have to choose? It could be months from now, or merely days from now...

_I don't even want to think about that right now, _she decided. Kagome shook her head to clear the thoughts and then leaned forward, falling into the time abyss.

It was nighttime already, and she wondered if maybe her family was already asleep. Even before the blue light had faded from around her, Kagome could tell that something was wrong. There was smoke all around her. She hastily climbed up the ladder and ran out of the building that housed the well, her heart stopping at the sight in front of her.

Flames of orange and red were flooding her house, making a sickening cracking sound as smoke poured from the windows of the fiery structure. The whole building seemed to be lit up even though the fire was probably only glazing in one of the rooms, and its situation on the top of the hill made the house a kind of beacon to the city. Kagome's feet seemed to be frozen in place as she stared at her home, as if she were unable to comprehend what was going on.

Her stillness only lasted seconds, though. "Mom! Sota! Gramps!" she screamed as she ran towards the house. Kagome flew through the front door and into the hall, yelling all the way. All thoughts of Inuyasha and the Feudal Era were forced out of the girl's head as she ran through her house.

"Mom!"

_Where are they? Please be okay..._

"Mom!"

Kagome ran along the hallway and paused by the doorway into the kitchen. The source of the flames appeared to be the stove, and Mrs. Higurashi lay on the floor next to it. She was clearly unconscious, and the whole room was quickly filling with fire.

Bravely, the girl stepped into the room, covering her mouth with her hand, and made her way across to her mother. She did the best she could to pull the woman away from the blaze, but she didn't get far. As she worked, the fire alarm started to screech. The shrill noise pierced through the hot air, and Kagome had no doubt that it would alert her other family.

_Now I just need to get Mom out of here_, she thought as she started coughing. The smoke was making it hard to concentrate. It felt like it was filling her mind and wrapping around her brain, as well as clouding over her vision.

Kagome wasn't distracted enough, however, to figure out that she needed to get out of the house - and fast. She quickly draped her mother's arm over her shoulder and lifted the woman as high as she could. Step by step, she slowly dragged herself and her mom out of the room. She could hear shouts from behind her as she worked her way down the hallway, but she could only focus on one thing at a time - and at this moment, she was concentrating completely on trying to get her mom out of the house.

As soon as she stepped out of the opened door, Kagome collapsed. She was coughing so violently that her knees buckled underneath her, and on her way to the ground her head slammed painfully into something. The loud cracking noise - along with the considerable harm that came with the fall - distracted her from her brother and grandpa, who had appeared beside her.

Kagome was vaguely aware of a familiar siren sounding somewhere in the distance, but the last thing she felt before she passed out was that her lungs were on fire, and that her vision was completely black even though her eyes were open.

--

"Kagome?"

"Kagome, can you hear me?"

_Gramps? Sota?_

"Please wake up, honey."

_Mom. _At this last voice, Kagome's eyes shot open. Light from an open window painfully filled her eyes and she was temporarily blinded, but her hearing was working just fine - multiple sighs of relief could be heard around her.

Kagome instantly recognized that she was in a hospital, based on the unfamiliar white color of the walls and the beeping machine that was connected to her body via a needle in the crook of her elbow. Sota and her granpda stood to her left, and she smiled at them before turning to the other figure - her mom, who was standing to her right.

"Mom?" Her own voice sounded raspy and unfamiliar, but the woman smiled at her daughter nonetheless.

"Kagome...you saved my life," she said slowly, tears filling her eyes. "Thank you."

Kagome coughed a few times, causing her to remember what happened the night before. "You don't need to thank me," she said, the sound being more normal now that she had cleared a bit of the remaining smoke out of her lungs. "But...what happened?"

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head, a frown appearing on her face. "I was making a pot of tea for myself before bed, but I must've fallen asleep while doing so," she said. "I'm lucky that you showed up when you did, Kagome."

Kagome nodded, but then another thought occurred to her. "How is the kitchen?" she asked.

"It'll be fine after some repairs," Gramps said, stepping into the conversation. "The firemen calmed down the blaze before it could do too much damage."

"So, Sis, what's been going on with Inu - " Sota started, but the door flung open, effectively cutting him off.

Everyone turned to see Kagome's school friends - Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi - standing in the doorway. "Kagome!" they all shouted at once, rushing over to the girl's side.

"Hey, everyone," Kagome said pitifully, bringing on another round of coughing.

"Kagome, you don't look so good," Eri said worriedly as the three girls pushed past Kagome's family to stand next to their friend.

Kagome smiled as best as she could. "I'm okay," she said. "Just some smoke and a little bump on the head."

"Just a _little bump_?" Yuka asked incredulously, her eyes widening. "You were out for three days!"

Kagome's smile vanished instantly, and she looked over at her family. "I've been unconscious for _three days_?" she nearly shouted. She could hear the monitor start to beep faster, so she tried to slow her breathing down a bit and relax.

_How is that possible?_ she thought. _Oh, no...Inuyasha will come looking for me soon. And what will he think when he sees what happened to the kitchen, and no one is home?_

Her mother's voice forced Kagome out of her thoughts. "You have a severe concussion, sweetie," she said softly. She hadn't realized that she had hit her head _that_ hard.

"How severe is it?" she asked.

This time is what Grandpa Higurashi who answered. "The doctors need to keep you here for a couple of days, and they said that you can't do any sort of physical activites for a few weeks," he said matter-of-factly.

_Inuyasha is going to be so mad,_ Kagome thought as she tore her eyes away from her family and turned to her friends instead. _Oh, well. I might as well try to get some school work done while I wait in the hospital._

"Hey, guys, do you think you could bring me my homework?" Kagome asked sweetly.

Her friends perked up a bit and nodded. "Of course we will, Kagome," Ayumi answered instantly, smiling at the injured girl.

"And I'm sure Hojo will want to stop by and make sure that you're okay," Eri said with a smirk before backing up a few steps and heading towards the door.

_Oh, wonderful..._

Yuka followed Eri, saying as she did, "We should probably be going, but we'll tell everyone at school that you're fine." Ayumi gave Kagome one last smile before trailing after the other two and out the door.

"Thanks," Kagome called after they had left, not really caring that they didn't hear. _I don't want to deal with Hojo right now..._

Just a few seconds after the girls left, a man with a clipboard walked into the room and stopped at the base of the bed. "Hello, Kagome. It's good to see that you're awake," he said politely, with a smile stretching across his face. He was a handsome man, probably in his late thirties, and quite obviously a doctor.

"Kagome, this is Dr. Suzuki," her mother introduced, gesturing to the man.

Kagome nodded at the doctor, unable to smile in her current mood.

"So, how are you feeling?" Dr. Suzuki asked, flipping a few pages in his clipboard and pulling a pen out of the pocket of his white coat.

"Um, well, my head is killing me," Kagome started. There had been a constant throbbing inside her skull ever since she'd awakened, but she hadn't focused on it until now. "And my lungs feel like they're full of smoke." She didn't feel like masking her discomfort to this man.

He scribbled a few notes on his clipboard before flipping back to the first page and putting his pen away again. "Well, I'm sure your family has told you that you're going to have to stay here for a few days so we can monitor you, because you have a pretty serious concussion," he said calmly.

His eyes flickered momentarily to her bandaged head before he began speaking again. "I would advise you not to strain yourself for the next month or so. Concussions can be pretty dangerous. And when you leave the hospital I will subscribe pain medication for you in case you need it."

Kagome nodded again, sharper this time, the motion causing pain in her head. "Thanks," she mumbled pathetically.

Dr. Suzuki smiled again and left the room, no doubt to tend to his other patients. Kagome was glad. She didn't really want to have to deal with too many people at the moment. Despite being asleep for days, the only thing she felt at the moment - besides pain and slight dizziness - was extreme fatigue.

The girl yawned, and felt her eyelids beginning to get heavy again. "Are you tired, Kagome?" Sota asked, and she slowly turned to look at him with droopy eyes.

"Mmhmm," she answered sleepily. She closed her eyes and was just about to drift off when a thought occurred to her.

Opening one of her eyes slightly, Kagome gazed at her mother. "Hey, Mom?" she asked.

"Yes, dear?"

"Can you go home and make sure that Inuyasha doesn't freak out when he comes to our house to get me?"

Kagome's eye slid shut, and she barely heard her mom say, "Of course, Kagome," before she fell back into a deep sleep.

* * *

A/N: Ummm I think there was something I was supposed to put here, but I can't really remember what it was...oh, well. How was the first chapter of my second story? I hope to have the next chapter up next weekend - or maybe a bit later. Please review!


	2. Hospital

A/N: Phew, I finished this chapter. I was kinda torn between where to go in this one, but I finally made a decision. So here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Inuyasha hated waiting.

The sun was setting on his third day without Kagome, and the hanyou was starting to get very impatient. Normally he would've already jumped into the well to go get her, but the only thing stopping him now was the fact that he had no _reason_ to bring her back. No practical reason, that is.

He knew the exact explanation for his urge to get her back in the Feudal Era with him, but he would never be able to tell _anyone_ that reason. And since there was no real hurry for her to come back and join them, Inuyasha's only conclusion was that he should wait for a few more days.

So the hanyou had been compelled to sit in a tree overlooking the well for hours on end, waiting for the girl to come back on her own.

_But she's taking so damn long_, complained Inuyasha to himself. _I should just go get her..._

The boy sighed angrily and glared at the Bone Eater's Well. _Why did I even let her go in the first place?_ he wondered. _Then again, the last time she went home was over two months ago. She deserves a break._

Inuyasha was so lost in his thoughts that at he didn't notice Shippo walk up to the ancient well - until the little fox demon started talking.

"Kagome," Shippo whined as he hopped up to sit on the edge of the structure and stare into its depths. "Why do you always leave us?"

Shippo's observer smiled slightly as he watched the boy sigh repeatedly. If there was anyone who wanted Kagome to return as badly as Inuyasha did, it was the small fox demon. The miko was almost a mother to Shippo, and the boy hated it just as much whenever Kagome decided to go home for a few days as Inuyasha did.

A thought occurred to Inuyasha then. _If Shippo wants Kagome to come back so bad, then I really do have an excuse to go get her._ The hanyou smiled for a moment at his idea before hopping down from the tree.

Shippo jumped and yelped when Inuyasha landed on the opposite side of the well from him. "Inuyasha!" he shouted, surprised.

"What are you doing here, runt?"

Shippo recovered from his shock and was now glaring at his companion. "Why do you care, Inuyasha?" he shouted, pouting.

Inuyasha scowled right back at the boy. "I just asked you a question - no need to get all mean about it," he spat back.

The fox demon considered this and then sighed, deciding it didn't matter what Inuyasha thought. "I hate it when Kagome goes home," he admitted, returning to gazing into the blackness of the hole in the ground. "I wish she would just stay with us here. Forever."

Inuyasha silently agreed. "Well, Shippo, I can't really help you with that," he said, much softer than before. "Kagome's too stubborn. She wants to be with her family _and_ with us."

"But you could make her change her mind!" Shippo said with little determination, glancing back up at Inuyasha. "She would listen to you."

"Keh, I wish," Inuyasha muttered. "She'd just sit me."

Shippo was about to respond but paused. "When was the last time she used to beads on you?" he asked after a second.

Inuyasha thought. "I dunno," he answered. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really remember the last time she had told him to sit.

"She's a lot nicer to you now than she was before," Shippo commented, and Inuyasha knew it was true. He just didn't know _why_.

The two sat in comfortable - albeit unusual - silence for a moment before Shippo remembered why he was sad and began to whine again. "Inuyasha, will you _please_ make Kagome come back?" he asked with his lower lip jutting out in a pout.

"I dunno, Shippo..."

"_Please?_" Shippo whined again.

Inuyasha really didn't need any more invitation. "Alright, whatever," he answered with mock irritation before hopping into the well. Shippo watched as a blue light engulfed the hanyou before he disappeared into the future.

The fox demon smiled, knowing his plan had worked. Inuyasha never would have gone to get Kagome if he hadn't asked.

--

The air around Inuyasha seemed different as he leaped out of the well. It smelled very faintly of smoke. Just when he was getting confused by the scent, the hanyou walked out of the building housing the well and gasped. A sizable portion of the wall of Kagome's house was charred black from what he could only assume was a fire, and the windows surrounded by the color were covered in a thin, clear sheet of something.

Inuyasha immediately jumped up to Kagome's window and slid it open before hopping inside. The girl he was searching for was nowhere to be found, and her scent wasn't by any means fresh.

_Where would Kagome have gone if she didn't come to her room?_ the hanyou wondered as he made his way downstairs.

Voices were coming from the living room, so he headed in that direction. On the way down the hall, however, Inuyasha glanced into the kitchen and found that this was the room of the fire. Strangely enough, Kagome's scent was mixed in with the overpowering smell of the former blaze. He paused for a moment to look over at the burnt room before continuing into the living room.

Sota, Kagome's mother, and Gramps were sitting on the couch with the TV on, the likes of which they had probably been watching until Inuyasha had walked in and their eyes had turned to him.

"Hello, Inuyasha," Mrs. Higurashi said kindly as she got to her feet.

Inuyasha didn't even bother saying hi. He was too confused and worried. "Where's Kagome?" he asked.

Sota stood as well, taking a step towards Inuyasha before stopping. "Well, she kind of..." he started.

"Kind of _what_?" Inuyasha nearly shouted. "What happened?"

Grandpa Higurashi answered this time. "Kagome's in the hospital," he said.

Inuyasha just stared blankly at the man. "What does that mean?" he asked bluntly. _What the hell is a hospital?_

"She hit her head pretty hard," Sota said quietly. "And she's at the hospital recovering."

"She won't be able to join you again for a few weeks," Kagome's mother said softly, knowing it would upset the hanyou. She could see the obvious bond the boy shared with her daughter. "She saved my life," the woman added as an afterthought, barely above a whisper.

Inuyasha processed this for a moment, relief filling him - along with slight irritation. Kagome's family watched his expression, knowing very well what he would ask next.

"Where is this hospital?" Inuyasha inquired after a few seconds.

--

Kagome awoke from her sleep to find that it was the middle of the night. It took her a moment to realize where she was, but the only light in the room - the monitor that was hooked up to her body and keeping tabs on her heart rate - gave that information away very quickly.

The other bed in the room was still empty, the walls were still a boring white color - though it was nearly impossible to tell with the lack of light - and everything else seemed exactly the same as she had left it when she had last fallen asleep, except that she was completely alone this time.

Once the girl figured out that she was, indeed, still in the hospital, and that everything that had happened hadn't just been a bad dream, she decided to go back to sleep. She had been sleeping for nearly half a day since waking up from her mini coma, but somehow she was _still_ tired.

Kagome closed her eyes and was about to drift back into a comfortable snooze when she heard a sound from her right.

The miko's eyes shot open and she fixed her gaze on the source of the sound - the window. It was now wide open, and a familiar figure stood in front of it, framed by the moonlight that was now streaming into the room.

"Inuyasha," Kagome breathed, her voice thick from sleep.

"Sorry," was the response. "I didn't mean to wake you up." The hanyou stepped around the empty bed and closer to Kagome's while surveying her appearance. He scowled at the bandage covering her head, wondering _how_ exactly she had injured herself so badly.

Kagome shook her head, wincing slightly as the movement caused her unexpected dizziness. "That's okay," she said. "I've been sleeping for a long time."

Inuyasha sighed. "Kagome," he said quietly, not really sure what to say to the girl. She had scared the _shit_ out of him. "I'm...glad you're okay."

Kagome smiled in response. "Thank you, Inuyasha." The two lapsed into complete silence for nearly a minute before the girl spoke again. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Inuyasha asked. _What in the world does she have to be sorry for?_

"I won't be able to go back to the Feudal Era for a while," she replied softly. "I...there was a fire in our kitchen, that night I came back. The details are kinda fuzzy, but I remember coughing so much from the smoke and...I fell and hit my head on the concrete outside."

Inuyasha frowned at the girl during her explanation. When she was done, he shook his head. "Whatever," he said. "Take your time recovering. You won't be of much use to anyone hurt anyways."

Kagome disregarded the fact that she could've very easily taken his comment as an insult, and frowned in confusion instead. "Inuyasha, you're actually really weird," she commented. "First you let me come home without a fight, and now you're telling me that it's okay that you have to wait a month to find the jewel shards?"

Inuyasha shrugged and folded his arms. "I'm not in a big hurry. Naraku's already dead."

The miko considered this for a moment and then smiled. "Thank you, Inuyasha," she said simply. And then she yawned. The pounding in her head had been dulled by sleep, but now it was coming back again.

"I'll just go back and tell the others what happened," Inuyasha said, turning away and walking over to the still open window.

"Wait," Kagome called out softly. Inuyasha turned his head, and the girl's breath caught at the way the moonlight was framing his face. He really was gorgeous. She blushed slightly, and Inuyasha frowned in confusion. "Will you...will you come back to see me sometime?" she asked almost embarassingly.

Inuyasha smiled slightly and nodded before jumping out the window.

Kagome drifted back into a comfortable sleep with a faint smile on her face. She just loved it when Inuyasha showed that he cared about her.

--

The next time Kagome woke up it was morning, and, again, she wasn't alone in her room.

The other bed near the window had previously been empty, but now it was filled by a boy about Kagome's age. He was sleeping, and had a similar bandage around his head. _They must have brought him in early this morning,_ she thought as she slowly sat up to get a better look at the boy.

He looked very familiar to Kagome, but she just couldn't put her finger on who it was he reminded her of. Maybe someone from the Feudal Era? She wasn't really sure, but she knew that it would bug her until she figured out who it was.

And then the door flying open pulled the girl out of her thoughts.

"Kagome!" three girls shouted simultaneously as they moved over to the girl's bed.

Kagome turned to her friends and put a finger up to her mouth. "Shhh," she said, gesturing to the sleeping boy beside her.

Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka's smiles faded slightly. "Oops," they all whispered at the same time.

Yuka shrugged and pulled the backpack from her shoulder, plopping it down on the foot of Kagome's bed. "So, guess what, Kagome?" she said in a hushed tone as she pulled book after book out of her bag.

"What?" asked Kagome fearfully as she stared at the scary amount of books and binders that the three girls were pulling out of their backpacks.

"We brought someone to see you," Eri replied in a teasing voice, gesturing towards the door just a familiar boy walked through its frame.

"Hello, Kagome," the boy said excitedly.

"Oh, hey, Hojo," Kagome called with considerably less enthusiasm.

_This is going to be a long day..._the girl thought as she moved her vision between her friends, their books, and Hojo. _A really long day._

A/N: I'll post the next chapter probably sometime in the coming week. Review, please!


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